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MELLON

Is our future predetermined?

Dr. Bradford Skow, Philosophy Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, presented a new theory of time, which suggests that the past, present and future coexist. The difference is that the present does not constitute a “display of time” but a “temporarily dispersed” state.

With this in view, ARTos Foundation has designed and introduces the project “Mellon”, which consists of a series of selected presentations, by distinguished experts in the design of actions in the fields of: ‘Future Museum’, ‘Future Cities’, ‘Post Humanoid’, as well as the fields of Arts & Sciences.

‘MELLON’ is taking place with the support of the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture and includes a series of different actions and approaches on the subject, throughout 2016.

MELLON | Future Cities – Lecture with Gerfried Stocker

(Artistic Director of ARS Electronica Linz, Austria)

Friday, 25 November 2016 at 20:00

Following the launch of MELLON with ‘Post-Humanoid with Stelarc” and “Future Museum with Chris Dercon”, our programme actions continue with the lecture ‘Future Cities with Gerfried Stocker’, which will take place on Friday, 25 November 2016 at 20:00, at ARTos Foundation, with the support of the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education.

“The main idea behind the term Postcity is that we need to think the city beyond infrastructure and that we have to put the people, the citizens into the center of the future developments. The new technologies which are going to shape our cities and the way we live together in cities will be networked systems which will be very present in our every day lives. In former times we were “operating” machines and we were “using” infrastructure, in the future we will live together with them. We will be in a permanent exchange with them and it will be a very adaptive and responsive situation.How can architecture, urban planning and policy making respond to these needs and what is the role of art to design this future?”

Postcity, habitats of the 21st century, Gerfried Stocker

A few words about Gerfried Stocker

Gerfried Stocker is a media artist and telecommunications engineer. In 1991, he founded x-space, a team formed to carry out interdisciplinary projects, which went on to produce numerous installations and performances featuring elements of interaction, robotics and telecommunications. Since 1995, Gerfried Stocker has been artistic director of Ars Electronica.

Friday, 25 November 2016 at 19:30

Inhibition

Installation | Performance by Marino Koutsomichalis

Inhibition revolves around an ‘intelligent’ headset that is capable of EEG (electroencephalography), algorithmic sound synthesis and machine learning. With the headset on, neurophysical activity is constantly monitored and those particular kinds of sounds that are most likely to inhibit concentration are generated, hindering direct man-machine coupling and destabilising the subject’s cerebral rhythms. In this way a new kind of uncanny ‘meta-mind’ is brought forth, one that is enacted on top of machine learning schemata, neuro-feedback and bio-technological autopoiesis. Embracing the open-source software/hardware paradigm, Inhibition forwards hands-on audience participation and community-driven experimentation. Electronic schematics, 3d-printable/cnc-millable models and code are made available at www.inhibition-eeg.com, where audiences may also socialise with one another, contribute technical material, and upload images/video showcasing their own creative outcomes.

A few words about Marinos Koutsomichalis

Marinos Koutsomichalis is a media artist, scholar and creative technologist. His interests comprise hypermediacy, post-humanism, distributed cognition, computational aesthetics and DIWO, while the most persistent themes in his artistic corpus are self-erasure and the post-self. He strives for contextual and geographical disparity so that the working tactics, materials and technologies his projects revolve around are ever-renovated.

Following the launch of MELLON with ‘Post-Humanoid with Stelarc”, our programme actions continue with the lecture ‘Future Museum with Chris Dercon’, which will take place on Monday, 26 September 2016 at 19:30, at ARTos Foundation, with the support of the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture and the British High Commission in Nicosia.

“Vast, solid, monolithic, vertical museums are probably buildings of the past… Expensive buildings might be a thing of the past. Probably the new Tate Modern is one of the last examples of this period… Today and tomorrow changing the museum will no longer be just a matter of building; it will have to rethink what kind of space the museum can and should be. It can also be a digital space…

We have to think of a new form of museum architecture that isn’t just architecture, but is also about new organizational and financial models… Conceiving a perfect space for art and artists – I don’t think that’s a priority any longer. We have to consider sharing, interconnectivity, and cultural participation: what does the viewer want and need?”

(Excerpts by the publication “Museum of the Future”, Interview – 15th June 2014, Zurich)

Chris Dercon is the appointed director of VolksbühneBerlin, Germany. Previously he was director of Tate Modern; London, Haus der Kunst, Munich; the Witte de With, Rotterdam; and the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

A one-day crash course, delivered by the multidisciplinary artist and innovation mentor Achilleas Kentonis and Stelarc, focusing on the subject of developing an innovative thinking-process in a post-humanoid environment.

Free EntranceReservation required

Maximum number of participants: 8 people
For further information and reservations please contact us at 22 445 456 or via email at info@artosfoundation.org

What is the Innovation Gym?
Innovation Gym is a research lab dedicated to the discovery of new ways to invent and/or re-invent ideas, processes, products, policies and infrastructures, through mind-shifting towards innovative thinking and the use of existing knowledge and experience.

Innovation Gym is a blend of artistic and scientific practices/actions, which are applied in the society for the benefit of the people and the economy; whilst focusing on the aspect of social impact. This practical crash course is always custom-made and combined with: a research on the specific topic on which it focuses each time, and a study of the profile of the people attending.

Innovation Gym is developed in three steps:
1. How to get new and innovative ideas
2. How to select and predict which of your ideas will succeed
3. Design the blueprints and plans of your idea in a rapid-mapping approach.

Achilleas Kentonis
Trans-disciplinary Artist / Innovation trainer / Engineer
He studied Engineering, Physics and Fine Arts in the University of South Alabama, USA and at the Universidad de Castilla la Mancha, Spain and completed a professional education program on Innovation at the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Boston, USA.

As a researcher / scientist he participated in research programs at NASA, the University of Cyprus and the Aegean University. He is the founder of Innovation Gym and co-founder of ARTos Foundation.

The launch of the program is marked by the action ‘Post-Humanoid’ with the famous artist Stelarc; 10 years after his first collaboration with ARTos Foundation. The artist will lead a Lecture/Presentation focusing on the subject of the ‘Post-Humanoid’ through a theoretical and practical approach, as analysed and developed in his artwork and research and followed by a demonstration of hisSecond Life’ site performance.

The visitors will also have the opportunity to experience some of the artist’s most iconic works in a mini-exhibition including videos and installations.

A few words about Stelarc
Stelarc (Stelios Arcadiou) was born in Limassol in 1946 and was raised in Sunshine, in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.

Stelarc is a performance artist who has visually probed and acoustically amplified his body. He has made three films of the inside of his body. Between 1976 – 1988 he completed 26 body suspension performances with hooks into the skin. He has used medical instruments, prosthetics, robotics, Virtual Reality systems, the Internet and biotechnology to engineer intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body. He explores Alternate Anatomical Architectures with augmented and extended body constructs.

He has performed with a THIRD HAND, an EXTENDED ARM, a VIRTUAL ARM, a STOMACH SCULPTURE and EXOSKELETON, a 6-legged walking robot. His FRACTAL FLESH, PING BODY and PARASITE performances explored involuntary, remote and internet choreography of the body with electrical stimulation of the muscles, while his PROSTHETIC HEAD is an embodied conversational agent that speaks to the person who interrogates it.

Stelarc is currently performing as his avatar from his SECOND LIFE site, he is a Distinguished Research Fellow in the School of Design and Art, Curtin University and his artwork is represented by the SCOTT LIVESEY GALLERIES in Melbourne.